It's cold and snowing today in Wilmington, Delaware so I've decided
to work from home, which isn't the best thing if you're an accountant
trying to meet a tax deadline. As I review my clients' taxes for 2014 I
can't help thinking about how the latest tax changes proposed by the
President would impact their current retirement and estate plans.
Indeed, these proposals face an uphill battle in Congress and many
commentators will tell you that they are already DOA, but we still need
to understand the potential impact that each of these provisions would
have and advise on the alternatives. Current proposals include rolling
back the estate and gift tax exclusions to pre-2010 levels, limiting
GRAT terms, requiring inherited IRAs to be withdrawn within 5 years and
even taxing the built-in gain on appreciated property upon gifting or at
death, just to name a few. Reviewing the potential impact will probably
go beyond the expertise of any one of us in our respective profession,
thus demanding that we collaborate together at the highest level as a
team with other estate planning advisors to best serve our clients'
interest. In the spirit of multi-disciplinary teaming, please be sure to
visit the new Guide to
Teaming section of our website to learn more about webinars,
publications and other educational opportunities devoted to this effort.

Here are two things this wintery weather shouldn't stop you from
doing. First, register for the monthly
Robert G. Alexander
Webinar Series, presented by the leading experts in their respective
field. These very affordable one-hour sessions address many of the
technical as well as practical aspects of estate planning and dealing
with clients and their issues. Second, be sure to visit our website and
log on to the NAEPC Journal of
Estate & Tax Planning. This quarter's edition provides a wonderful
selection of up-to-date articles on a variety of subjects that is sure
to have something that will help all of you in your practice.

And finally, here's a warm though for all of you (especially for our
colleagues in Boston!)—mark your calendar now for the
52nd Annual NAEPC Advanced
Estate Planning Strategies Conference in Amelia Island, Florida,
November 18-20, 2015. In addition to sitting by the pool (a favorite of
mine), golfing, tennis and working on your tan, you will be networking
with other estate planning professionals while learning the latest
trends and planning techniques from a star-studded lineup of speakers.
Look for our early-bird brochure and to learn more about the conference,
check our website.

Stay warm.

Who
Are We?
by Al W. King, III, JD, LL.M., AEP® (Distinguished)

Most of the successful companies and sports teams attribute
their success to the team concept. The best teams all understand
each other's role and most importantly the ultimate goal or
goals. As the Hall of Fame professional football coach Vince
Lombardi once said "The achievements of an organization are the
results of the combined efforts of each individual." This
epitomizes the NAEPC concept of a multi-disciplinary team to
estate planning. Having worked at a fee-based financial planning
firm, national securities firm, national insurance company,
regional bank, "Big Four" CPA firm, international money center
bank, law firm, and now a founder of a trust company without
products, I came to realize firsthand over the years the
importance of multi-disciplinary teamwork regarding a client's
estate planning. I also came to realize that this teamwork takes
many forms. [READ MORE]

The
Estate Law Specialist Board, Inc., an attorney-run subsidiary of the National
Association of Estate Planners & Councils, is the only ABA-accredited program
for certification of an attorney as an Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS).
Attorneys who become Board-certified under this elite program demonstrate a high
level of professionalism and a commitment to the concept of specialization. The
program was accredited by the ABA in 1996.

To obtain Board-certified status, an attorney must meet the following
requirements:

Five or more years as an estate planning attorney during which at least
1/3 of the attorney's practice is devoted to estate planning

12 or more hours of continuing legal education in estate planning topics
per year for the last three years

Verification of professional liability insurance coverage

Recommendations from at least five colleagues who are not related to or
within the same firm as the applicant

Passing a comprehensive exam designed so competent attorneys having
constant exposure to estate planning can pass without substantial
independent study

Please plan on attending our signature annual event, the 52nd Annual
NAEPC Advanced Estate Planning Strategies Conference with pre-conference
sessions for Estate Planning Council Leaders. The program offers one day for
leaders of estate planning councils (Council Leadership Day, Wednesday,
November 18th) and two full days of continuing education for every estate
planner (Thursday, November 19th & Friday, November 20th).

The Annual Conference is available to all estate planning
professionals and provides two full days of national,
multi-disciplinary, continuing education credit!

The
early bird brochure
is now available and registration
is open! Attendees can expect to learn from and spend time
with the following speakers during the two days of technical education:

As always,
www.naepc.org/conference is the best place to obtain current information
on the annual conference. Check in often!

52nd Annual
Conference Speaker Highlight

Samuel
Donaldson, professor of law, served as a professor and associate dean at
the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle for 13 years, where he
was a five-time recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year
award from the law school's Student Bar Association.

A member of the Bar in Washington, Oregon and Arizona, he has written and
co-written many books, including the Price on Contemporary Estate Planning
treatise published by CCH and the forthcoming West casebook, Federal Income
Tax: A Contemporary Approach.

He is also an amateur crossword constructor, and his puzzles have been
published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, and other outlets.

Decanting allows the terms of an irrevocable trust to be changed by
distributing the trust assets to a different trust with different terms.
This has become a popular technique because there are so many people who
want to change the the terms of their irrevocable trusts.

Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP® (Distinguished) is a member of the Law
Offices of Oshins & Associates, LLC in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is listed in
The Best Lawyers in America® and was named the Las Vegas Trusts and Estates
Lawyer of the Year in 2012 and 2015 by The Best Lawyers in America®. He was
inducted into the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame® in 2011.

If you have clients who employ a senior caregiver(s), there are important
nuances to compliance that may impact your clients, especially if the care is
funded through a trust or through third-party payers like Medicaid or Long Term
Care insurance. Tom Breedlove of Care.com HomePay Provided by Breedlove, an
expert in household employment, will share relevant case studies that illustrate
tax and legal risks and how to help your clients avoid them.

Tom Breedlove, Director, Care.com HomePay(SM)
Tom brings 25+ years of business experience, including 9 years on the executive
team at Breedlove & Associates—now Care.com HomePay—the nation's leading
household employment specialist. With a mission to help families handle all the
tax and legal obligations that come with employing a caregiver in the home,
Care.com HomePay is the go-to resource for thousands of placement agencies,
accountants, financial advisors and attorneys.

As Director of Care.com HomePay, Tom is a leader of a national service firm
focused on delivering a comprehensive solution for busy families with care in
the home—handling all of the state and federal employer requirements related
to payroll, wage reporting, tax remittance, labor law compliance, and tax agency
correspondence. From paydays to tax time and all points in between, Care.com
HomePay eliminates all the work and worry for household employers.

Continuing education credit will be available at each webinar for Accredited
Estate Planner® designees. In addition, a certificate of completion will be
made available for those professionals who feel the program satisfies their
continuing education requirements and are able to self-file. Councils may
also file the program in their home state for programs offered in a group
setting.

Registration
Fees

$40 / Accredited Estate Planner® designee (dues must be current at the
time of registration)

$60 / member of an affiliated local estate planning council or at-large
member of NAEPC

$100 / individual non-member

$250 / council meeting or group gathering (council dues must be current
at the time of registration)

Accredited Estate
Planner® Designation Program

Becoming an Accredited Estate Planner® designee is more than just
completing an application, submitting it, and waiting for acceptance.

Obtaining the Accredited Estate Planner® designation offers more than an
additional set of initials after your name.

All members of affiliated local councils have access to a growing and diverse
offering of benefits provided through the council's affiliation with NAEPC, a
list of which appears below. You are encouraged to visit
www.naepc.org
to take a look today. As you browse, please remember that some
benefits are password protected. For these special benefits members must utilize
a user name/password to access detailed ordering links and information. If you
are an At-large member or member of a council that utilizes passwords on a
website hosted by NAEPC, you can use the "I forgot my password" option. Others
should contact NAEPC with questions about the appropriate user name/password
combination.

New
Benefit

Bloomberg BNA's Art of the Estate Tax Return by Keith Schiller

Art of the Estate Tax Return, Second Edition—Estate Planning at the
Movies® provides in-depth tax analysis and strategic counsel, while offering
the ultimate in readability, by connecting well-known motion pictures to
practical estate planning and compliance. These connections create great
reminders of significant strategies or law, making the tax law fun.

Underlying the cinematic connections, the author shares his best practice
tips from a career of preparing, reviewing, and defending estate tax
returns, and his greater than 25 years of teaching experience for tax
professionals.

This treatise explores the nuances of law and procedure that enter into
the preparation and defense of Form 706, including:

Expanded coverage of portability elections

Illustrated estate tax returns

Maximizing valuation discounts and deductions

Protecting FLPs and FLLCs

Securing best appraisal results

Tips to avoid audits

Pointers on GST reporting

Cautions and help for fiduciaries

Warnings and opportunities from inconsistencies in the law

Strategies for audits and appeals

And much more!

Winner of the 2010-2011 Award for Outstanding Course Materials by the
CalCPA Education Foundation.

Estate Planning At The Movies® is the registered trademark of Keith
Schiller.

NAEPC members are entitled to a 20% discount on this publication, the
promotion code can be obtained by logging into our
members-only area for special pricing and ordering links.

Published quarterly and available at no-charge to all estate planning council
members and Accredited Estate Planner® designees, The Journal is
considered to be one of the top benefits of membership in NAEPC.

Within the current issue you will find the following articles, take a look
today!

2nd Annual Trust Decanting State Rankings Chart

2015 Key Numbers

Building Your Practice and Developing Your Skills Locally and Nationally

The Taxing Side of Divorce: Division of Non-Qualified Employee Benefits

To Convert or Not to Convert, That is the Question

Web Meets the Will: Estate Planning for Digital Assets

The Council Corner
News Just for the Estate Planning Council & its Leadership

The
Council Relations Committee is dedicated being the personal connection to
the NAEPC for estate planning councils and to assist in maximizing the resources
available to the nearly 260 councils across the country. Many of these services
and tools are included in the council dues at no additional charge and are
designed to help the council be as effective as possible to their membership and
the public.

From the free referral services, web site platforms, to the
Council Nominated Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®) designation program, our
committee can help council leaders understand and utilize these tools and
special benefits. I encourage you to visit our
website, especially the For
Councils section and its sub-tabs; a log-in is not required. You may also
wish to look at the information found at the "For the Public" tab as is an
amazing resource for consumers (including our public website
www.EstatePlanningAnswers.org)
This tool can be extremely helpful, especially for our valued clients as they
grapple with the terms and definitions of our profession. Enjoy the tour of YOUR
website—we built it just for you!

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Options

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